CBE researchers receive grant to scale up new recycling technique

The REMADE Institute, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) public-private partnership, has awarded a project led by engineers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison $600,000 for a pilot-scale plant to demonstrate a new solvent-based recycling process. REMADE, one of the DOE’s Clean Energy Manufacturing Innovation Institutes, supports the development of technologies capable of dramatically reducing energy use and carbon emissions in materials production and processing.

The project involves several UW-Madison chemical and biological engineering faculty including Richard L. Antoine professor George Huber, director of the Department of Energy-funded multi-university research center Chemical Upcycling of Waste Plastics; Baldovin-DaPra Professor Victor Zavala; Hunt-Hougen Associate Professor Reid Van Lehn; and Duane H. and Dorothy M. Bluemke Assistant Professor Styliani Avraamidou. PhD students Kevin Sánchez-Rivera and Charles Granger as well as postdoctoral scholars Tianwei Yan and Euncheol Ra are also part of the project, along with researchers from Michigan Technological University and the plastics company Braskem.

The team plans to build a pilot-scale plant that uses the Solvent-Targeted Recovery and Precipitation (STRAP) process pioneered at UW-Madison. The system uses various solvents to recover different types of plastics from multi-layer plastic waste. In this project, the goal is to use the process to extract high-purity polypropylene from post-consumer recycled waste.

The project is one of 14 development and demonstration projects selected for REMADE’s latest round of funding. “These projects underscore the importance of manufacturing and materials innovations toward advancing a circular economy,” says Dr. Christopher Saldaña, director of DOE’s Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office. “The partnership between DOE and the REMADE Institute serves as a conduit for catalyzing transformative practices that not only bolster America’s manufacturing expertise but also accentuate our nation’s commitment to environmental stewardship.”